Hard Rock guitar joins Sioux City skyline; more

SIOUX CITY (AP) — A 50-foot electric guitar is about to join the Sioux City skyline.

The Sioux City Journal reports workers on Monday began to assemble the guitar-shaped sign that will be placed atop the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The operation is expected to open Aug. 1.

Hard Rock General Manager Todd Moyer says the guitar body will be connected with the Hard Rock logo and guitar neck as the sign is mounted on the roof of the four-story Battery Building. A crane will be used to lift the sign into place Thursday.

The sign will be visible for miles and will be easily spotted by motorists on Interstate 29.

The $128.5 million downtown casino and hotel will employ about 500 people.

Fort Madison man pleads guilty to child sex abuse

FORT MADISON (AP) — A 69-year-old Fort Madison man has made a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual abuse and one of lascivious acts with a child.

The Fort Madison Daily Democrat says Roger Mendez made the pleas on Friday. Prosecutor Clinton Boddicker told Judge John Linn that Mendez also agreed to plead guilty later to three misdemeanors.

Police investigator David Doyle says that following Mendez’s arrest in January, several other people came forward with accusations. Doyle says Mendez had victimized seven males, ages 7 to 20.

Doyle says the oldest accuser had made allegations years ago, but police couldn’t develop enough evidence for charges then.

Couple save pup swimming in Mississippi

DUBUQUE (AP) — A puppy named Misha is lucky an alert Dubuque couple noticed the dog struggling amid debris in the Mississippi River.

The Telegraph Herald reports Kathy and Kevin Vaughn were boating south of Dubuque, near Massey Marina, when Kathy noted there was a lot of floating debris.

As she gazed over the items, she noticed a black Labrador retriever having difficulty swimming through the debris.

She pulled the pup to safety into the boat, and when the couple arrived back at the marina they found the dog’s owners had alerted the restaurant staff about the missing dog.

They had left a missing dog poster stating the dog had wandered off while they camped at Nine Mile Island.

Dog owners Kristy and Josh Eichenberger, of Waterloo, returned Sunday to retrieve Misha.

Iowa’s flooding rivers receding, worst over

DES MOINES (AP) — No homes or businesses are threatened by floodwaters from Iowa’s swollen rivers and most of the waterways swamping farmland, parks and roads should recede by the weekend, the National Weather Service said.

Rivers are overflowing because of an unusually wet weather pattern that brought three times the normal amount of rain to the state in the past week.

“The good news is that most of the rivers in the state have already crested and are heading downward now,” Meteorologist Jim Lee with the weather service’s Des Moines office said Tuesday. “The worst of the flooding from this round is already past us.”

The Cedar River in eastern Iowa is flooding in Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, and Waterloo but will fall below flood stage by the end of the week. The Iowa River in eastern Iowa is reaching flood levels at Columbus Junction, Wapello, and Marengo and the Little Sioux River is flooding at Spencer but also will fall to below flood stage by the weekend.

The Mississippi River will flood in Burlington, Muscatine, and Keokuk but no serious damage is expected. At Burlington the river is expected to reach 18.5 feet, about 2.5 feet above flood stage on Sunday then begin to recede.

State Climatologist Harry Hillaker said in a report released Monday that the statewide average rainfall was nearly 3.7 inches last week, three times the normal 1.2 inches. It was the greatest weekly average for the same week in six years.

Rain is forecast in the next few days but it shouldn’t pose new flood concerns.

“It doesn’t look like widespread heavy rain is very likely, at least through Friday,” Lee said. “We could see localized heavy rain but in terms of statewide river flooding, nothing that would really cause too many problems.”

The weekend and next week brings added chances of widespread heavy rain, he said.